Im not bothered about greater than 1600 ISOI like 100 ISO .. or less!I use old school flashes controlled manuallyI have a D3 water housing..I like/am lensed for full frameI rarely use AFC or high FPS - but do find the 5d2 unresponsive as a camera both AF and FPSI shoot video on video cameras.

Not everyone has dust problems withthe D600. When reviewing an off the shelf D600 I shot several thousand frames with it nad had no dust problems.

For your interiors and studio work Morgan you'll be fine with the D600. The D3X and the D600 are capable of phenomenal image quality but the D3x has a better AF module and as you say you love the form factor of the D3 series and already know its control layout. If you felt the D800 was "a little small" you won't like the D600 form factor as it is an even smaller body.

However given what you say you do "...esp on interior shoots with a lot of verticals correction losing res," I think the D800 is a more ideal choice for your type of work and suggest you rent one for a week or so to give it a fairer shake.

Also try shooting with your cameras at ISO 160 instead of 100 - you might get a little cleaner signal to noise ratio in deep shadows.

Not everyone has dust problems withthe D600. When reviewing an off the shelf D600 I shot several thousand frames with it nad had no dust problems.

For your interiors and studio work Morgan you'll be fine with the D600. The D3X and the D600 are capable of phenomenal image quality but the D3x has a better AF module and as you say you love the form factor of the D3 series and already know its control layout. If you felt the D800 was "a little small" you won't like the D600 form factor as it is an even smaller body.

However given what you say you do "...esp on interior shoots with a lot of verticals correction losing res," I think the D800 is a more ideal choice for your type of work and suggest you rent one for a week or so to give it a fairer shake.

Also try shooting with your cameras at ISO 160 instead of 100 - you might get a little cleaner signal to noise ratio in deep shadows.

Thanks for the thoughts. Now im not a quality/MP nut - im fine with the D3 - 12mp or whatever it is, until you rip the files up with vert correction or stupid crops (say pulling an upright out of a l/s image)So a 12mp deliverable is fine but a bit poor for a start point on some jobs.. (and has less res than the dentist/client!)

The 800 is a little costly - in terms of me only needing better than my fully paid for D3 in 10% of shots - also its a card filler!

I think Im leaning towards the D3x unless people really pipe up that it is clunky - I get along fine with my '3' in terms of speed of use/ergonomics - for example to check/chimp a sharp frame you just press + and widdle the dial, wheras the 800 you have to press + multipe times - which feels slow to me (AFAIK)

I get along fine with my '3' in terms of speed of use/ergonomics - for example to check/chimp a sharp frame you just press + and widdle the dial, wheras the 800 you have to press + multipe times - which feels slow to me (AFAIK)

I've shot a lot with D3, D4 and D800's as well. All are great cameras. If you want to chimp-check at 100% just as with those others Nikons it is a simple custom function setting for the button on the back of the camera control disk.

From my experience going from a Nikon D3X to the Nikon D800 series other than at major increase in resolution what was more importantly was the increases in the dynamic range . The D800 files has a fatter file to them which in my opinion puts them on par to my Leaf Aptus digital back. The Nikon D800E also has a bigger dynamic range and cleaner blacks to my Leaf Aptus 75.

So I would go with the Nikon D600 with a additional battery grip over the Nikon D3x as it is now obsolete.

I had a D700 then stepped up to a D3s, and now have the D3s and D4. From shooting with these two "pro" body cameras, I know whenever I pick up someone else's camera that is a more "normal" sized body like a D800 or D7000 (Havn't held a D600, have seen it and assume its somewhere in-between these two)...I can't seem to make my hands feel as "comfortable". I have (very) small hands and yet these smaller cameras still feel lacking, maybe less so with the bulkier D800) but certainly a D800 or D600 with a battery grip WILL not compare to a D3s or D3x body ... I know I was shocked the first time I put my D3s next to my D700 with Battery Grip (when I still had both) and discovered that the D700 with battery grip was larger then the D3s! Anyway, I find the "pro" body style Nikon's to be the height of comfort in a camera.

To mee it certainly seems like you are considering things from the perspective of comfort since IQ is not up for debate as much here. I'm sure you can find some direct comparison files out there, but it sounds like for your uses the minute differences between the two sensors won't really matter, and we know the D3x is a stunner at the low-ISO's.

Personally, I would only consider the D800(or e) as a replacement for the Hasselblad. There are hellish cornucopia of discussions on here about whether the D800 beats MFDB, but it sounds like again from you that the issue here would be the print size, and while the MFDB has larger pixels, I suspect the 36mp of the D800 would yield you the resolution you would need to provide to clients. I only mention this since selling the Hasselblad could free up financial capital to invest in the D3x, and then a D800 if you still needed an "ultra" resolution camera, its nice since you seem to be set on lenses that is is simply the consideration of spreading around your equipment investment and capital in bodies.

Well I only have a 22mp back, and its old, and the files are stunning - I guess either 3x or 600 would yield 80% of the IQ and 4X the sensitivity to my back - a worthwhile trade to me - the only significant loss being 1/800 synch

The reason Im not too big on the 800 is that it does not have a HF jack (unlike the 600)

If I just did stills Id get the D3X.. no questions, but the 600 has an interesting video option

While I have sony video cameras, if I flog my 5d2, I will lose full frame video - which at the wide end can get you out of a hole

Also the D600 seems to present the best option (on the planet) for doing stills and video on a single body - something I only do on occasion.

Bottom line with all the internet waffle is to take the 600 for a spin in my hands and see how floppy it is

By floppy I probably mean, slow AF(?) slow FPS and tactiliy compared to the D3

Went from pair of D3Ss to a D3S and D800e (w/grip) and have played with D600, D7000, etc. The difference in feel, as mentioned above, between the 3 types of bodies is very notable. As above, I also much prefer the feel in hand of D3/S/X to that of the smaller bodies for daily work. Smaller hands, but they just feel "right" - kind of like my (now gone) Leica R9 & grip - it just fits perfectly (for me). The grip on the 800e helps, but the D3S still wins.

The D3X is an interesting companion to a D3 in that same ergos, batteries, etc. I actually almost acquired a D3X instead of the 800e, but when the X I had on hand to try showed an issue with fogging inside the rear LCD, returning it gave me the pause needed to re-evaluate. With a used D3X priced roughly in-line with a new (or newish) D800e, the 800e's sensor and video capabilities (though rarely use) outweighed the benefits of a D3X + D3S combo. There was just more value in the 800e equation for the reasons I wanted one -- to give a higher res/DR alternative to my remaining D3S for some work.